[Hidden-tech] durable DVD writer

Tue May 7 11:27:41 UTC 2019

Both of those options are much more expensive. That's alright if I'm just thinking of my own backups 
and archives, and I do both of those among other options as well. However, if I'm talking about 
producing 50 to 100 or so and distributing them to libraries and to extended family members 
(descendants of D.C.Graham – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Crockett_Graham), then it shoots 
way way out of my price range.

On 5/6/19 7:29 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Mon, 6 May 2019 16:28:01 -0400 Tom Adams ~ Reelife Productions & Folktography <tomadams at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Chris,
>>
>> "relatively universally accessible"- is the big question... I would suggest
>> thinking of portable hard drive like you would a dvd ... and put the video
>> files on the hard drive... you could label them and store it on a shelf.
>> and then access and connect to whatever playback device that would allow
>> for viewing, laptop/projector/tv/laptop screen...
> "Rotating rust" drives (traditional magnetic drives) don't always store well
> (the spindle lube hardens).  OTOH, SSDs store well.  As do SD cards and USB
> thumb drives.  No moving parts.  Highly shock resistant.
>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Regards,*
>>
>> *Tom Adams, Director/Owner*
>> *Reelife Documentary Productions <http://www.ReelifeProductions.com> â€¢
>> **Folktography
>> by Tom* <http://folktography.zenfolio.com>
>> *â€¢ Cool Media Production...Not Boring or Dumb *
>> â€¢ Media that Educates, Entertains & Enlightens... since 1996
>> *(413) 575-9707*
>> * â€¢ Williamsburg, MA*
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 4:18 PM Chris Hoogendyk <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm open to suggestions.
>>>
>>> I want something that I can put an informative label on the media and have
>>> it in a book like case
>>> that I can design a cover for. It should both be able to sit on a book
>>> shelf in a library and be
>>> uploaded to their digital archives. It should also be relatively
>>> "universally" accessible.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 5/6/19 3:38 PM, Tom Adams ~ Reelife Productions & Folktography wrote:
>>>> Chris, I are you committed to using DVDs? If not, I would highly
>>> recommend NOT using them. They
>>>> are a faulty medium and not good for archiving either. Be glad to
>>> discuss further...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *Regards,*
>>>> *
>>>> *
>>>> *Tom Adams, Director/Owner*
>>>> *Reelife Documentary Productions <http://www.ReelifeProductions.com> â€¢
>>> **Folktography by Tom*
>>>> <http://folktography.zenfolio.com>
>>>> /â€¢ Cool Media Production...Not Boring or Dumb /
>>>> â€¢ Media that Educates, Entertains & Enlightens... since 1996
>>>> /(413) 575-9707//
>>>>   â€¢ Williamsburg, MA
>>>> /
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 3:24 PM Chris Hoogendyk via Hidden-discuss
>>>> <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net <mailto:
>>> hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>> wrote:
>>>>      Does anyone have knowledge or experience about DVD drives with
>>> respect to writing lots of DVDs
>>>>      without burning out?
>>>>
>>>>      I've been producing DVDs of historical primary source material (see,
>>> e.g.,
>>> https://www.worldcat.org/title/moreygraham-historical-letters/oclc/904725729)
>>> on my
>>>>      grandfather (see
>>>>      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Crockett_Graham). In March, I
>>> was about to head out to
>>>>      China for
>>>>      a three week trip, and I was pulling an all nighter producing DVDs
>>> of my latest project with
>>>>      23 of
>>>>      his diaries. At 6am on the morning that I was leaving, my DVD drive
>>> took the usual length of
>>>>      time to
>>>>      burn a DVD (seems like forever), then it started the verification
>>> scan, took a long time and
>>>>      summarily spit out the DVD, saying it was unable to verify it. I
>>> went through 4 DVDs with the
>>>>      same
>>>>      result. This was from a stack of 100 good quality Sony DVDs that I
>>> had been pulling from for
>>>>      quite a
>>>>      while with no problems.
>>>>
>>>>      At the point that the drive failed, I had been burning DVDs non-stop
>>> for well over 12 hours. All
>>>>      told on this round going back a couple of days, I had burned
>>> something like 50-60 DVDs.
>>>>      Previously,
>>>>      I had used the drive to burn other DVDs.
>>>>
>>>>      This is not the first time I have had this experience. Maybe the
>>> third. (i.e. bought a new
>>>>      drive and
>>>>      then had it burn out.)
>>>>
>>>>      I'm using an iMac which I think is about 2014, running MacOS Mojave,
>>> with an Apple USB Superdrive.
>>>>      Googling reviews of drives is pretty useless. They basically tell
>>> you they bought the drive, it
>>>>      hooked up without any trouble, it worked great, and it is built
>>> solidly; or something like that.
>>>>      They don't give long term wear and reliability. They don't say
>>> anything about non-stop burning
>>>>      sessions; just normal easy use with a brand new device. I asked this
>>> question of a "genius" at
>>>>      the
>>>>      Apple Store this weekend, and he didn't really have an answer. He
>>> suggested that perhaps I should
>>>>      buy a less expensive drive, because the internals would be the same.
>>> He said Sony made some
>>>>      pretty
>>>>      good drives, they just didn't have the aluminum case, etc. that the
>>> Apple drive has, but would be
>>>>      half or less the cost. It would be great to have a Consumer Reports
>>> "mean time to failure under
>>>>      continuous burning" and whether there are any drives with different,
>>> more durable, internals.
>>>>
>>>>      --
>>>>      ---------------
>>>>
>>>>      Chris Hoogendyk
>>>>
>>>>      -
>>>>          O__  ---- Systems Administrator
>>>>         c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geosciences Departments
>>>>        (*) \(*) -- 315 Morrill Science Center
>>>>      ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
>>>>
>>>>      <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu <mailto:hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>>
>>>>
>>>>      ---------------
>>>>
>>>>      ErdÃ¶s 4
>>>>
>>>>      _______________________________________________
>>>>      Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
>>>>      Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net <mailto:
>>> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
>>>>      You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion
>>> list.
>>>>      If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
>>>>      page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
>>>>      http://www.hidden-tech.net/members
>>>>
>>> --
>>> ---------------
>>>
>>> Chris Hoogendyk
>>>
>>> -
>>>      O__  ---- Systems Administrator
>>>     c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geosciences Departments
>>>    (*) \(*) -- 315 Morrill Science Center
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
>>>
>>> <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>
>>>
>>> ---------------
>>>
>>> ErdÃ¶s 4
>>>
>>>
>> MIME-Version: 1.0
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
>> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
>>
>> You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list.
>> If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
>> page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
>> http://www.hidden-tech.net/members
>>
>>                                                                                              

-- 
---------------

Chris Hoogendyk

-
    O__  ---- Systems Administrator
   c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geosciences Departments
  (*) \(*) -- 315 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst

<hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>

---------------

Erdös 4